Proceedings of The 6th International Conference on Advanced Research in Education
Year: 2023
DOI:
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Students’ Perspective on Using Rubrics in Alternative Assessments
Dr. Gigi Lui, Dr. Dawn Lo, Dr. Pakey Chik, Dr. Joseph Chow
ABSTRACT:
Assessing student learning in higher education has become increasingly important, with rubrics being widely used as a tool for evaluating student work and alternative assessment methods being explored as alternatives to traditional testing. This paper presents a study on students’ views towards the use of rubrics and alternative assessment in an undergraduate engineering subject. It investigated students’ perceptions of rubrics, and how rubrics and alternative assessment (specifically seminar report) have helped students learn in the subject. Using a mixed methods approach, data were collected from two cohorts of students in 2021-22 and 2022-23 through pre- and post-surveys and focus group interviews. Results showed that students were generally positive towards rubrics and found rubrics and the alternative assessment useful in helping them to learn in diverse ways. Despite students’ views and feedback were positive (with all mean ratings above the mid-points), the mean ratings in the post-survey were lower than those in the pre-survey. The findings stimulated the subject teacher and researchers to reflect on how rubrics and alternative assessments were introduced to students and explore ways to enhance the effectiveness of rubrics and alternative assessment in promoting student learning. The study sheds light on the use of rubrics and alternative assessment in higher education and provides insights for educators on how to effectively use these tools to promote student learning.
keywords: Engineering education, Evaluation, Higher education, Pre-surveys, Post-surveys